Forms I have Visualized my Headaches As

A large, pinkish ball of light with a translucent glow, sort of like these light-up balls I remember from when I was a kid, with a surface that wasn’t solid but instead made up of linked little whorls with space in between for the light to shine through. I imagine it floating out of my head like a bubble.

A small, perfect sphere of gleaming cold chrome. Half in my head and half out, it detaches easily from the shallow metal socket in which it sits, leaving a circular hole in my forehead.

A long hexagonal rod bissecting my entire head. It is vividly orange, and traced with little ninety-angle etchings that may be circuitry. It slides slowly out of its deep slot. The hexagonal opening it leaves behind is pitch black inside.

A large, bean-shaped hunk of light-grey plastic that occupies and entire side of my forehead, with a tiny pointed light sticking out of it like a Christmas light, blinking a slow but steady red. The entire implant detaches and peels off — it’s a little thicker than a plate, and leaves a recessed crater in my head when it’s gone.

A bright pink, pyramid-shaped gem, heavy but with rounded edges, oriented on its side, so that the baseline runs the entire height of the incision. To remove it, it swings out as though this baseline were the hinge of a door. I rotate it slowly with my fingers, noting that each triangular surface is in a different configuration.

A spiky ball like a sea urchin, or like one of those see-through microscopic organisms. It floats inside my head like a ghost — I repel it outwards by firing it from head at high speed.